You And Me Against The World
by thisn3rdreads
Summary: Draco never wanted to be the bad guy. He just wanted to protect Emmiline. But everything comes with a price, and Draco is about to pay.
1. Chapter 1

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Emmiline screamed at Draco, angry tears falling down her cheeks. She looked around once, scanning the common room for people, and upon finding none, began to pace the length of the room.

"Emmiline, please, it's not what it looks like, let me explain," Draco begged. "You don't understand, I'm doing this for you!"

"For me? _For me?_ You're betraying everyone you know _for me?_ What's _wrong_ with you Draco?" Emmiline yelled.

"I'm trying to protect you, Emmiline! Don't you see? You-Know-Who said he would protect you! He would save you if I joined his side!"

Emmiline looked at Draco, disgusted and heartbroken. "If you believed a _word_ that came out of thatthing's mouth, you're more of a fool than I thought." With that, Emmiline turned on her heel, giving Draco one last steely glance, and left  
the room, her footsteps echoing down the hallway.

"Agh!" Draco exclaimed, punching the quickly realized that this was a foolish thing to do, as his knuckles were bruised purple.

He sat down in his chair, burying his face in his hands. Why didn't Emmilineunderstand that he was doing this for _her?_

She knows he would do anything for her, so why is this so hard to believe? She's the only thing that mattered to him. She needed to be kept safe. Why couldn't she understand that?

Draco took a look at the mark on his arm, feeling ashamed of what he had done, but knowing he had done the right thing.

Hadn't he?


	2. Chapter 2

_Beginning of 6th year_

"Emmiline!" Draco called, seeing her light brown hair waving in the wind coming through the open windows, rushing into a compartment in front of him. She had cut her hair, and it now barely reached her shoulders.

Emmiline did not respond. Was she _still_ mad at Draco for what he had done? Truth be told, Draco had expected this, as she hadn't returned any of his letters the entire summer, but what he didn't expect was how much ithurt.

Draco followed Emmiline into an empty compartment, plopping himself and his belongings down across from her. She shot him an irritated glare, and proceeded to look out the window defiantly, not saying a word.

Draco, not being able to stand such a suffocating silence, started to say "Emmiline, I told you-"

"Don't," Emmiline said icily, speaking her first word to him all summer. She looked close to tears, a look Draco didn't _ever_ want to see on her face.

"But if you'd just let me explain-"

"Explain what Draco? What the _hell_ are you going to say that will make this better?" Emmiline yelled, finally losing her temper.

"He said he would kill you!" Draco began desperately. "He said I had to join him. It's the only way to keep you safe."

"Draco-" Emmiline started, pausing as a bewildered first-year peeked in through the compartment door, sliding it close again quickly at the sight of them. "Great, now the whole train knows we're arguing!" Emmiline said, throwing her hands up in the air.

"Good for them! Now they'll all know that I did the right thing for you!" Draco shot back.

"You know what, I'm not going to talk to you until you're thinking clearly." Emmiline said, picking up her stuff.

"Then talk to me now!"

Emmiline let out a frustrated scream as she stormed out the door, luggage in hand. She slammed the door shut, hard enough to make Draco's seat rattle.

"So I take it we're over?" Draco yelled, knowing Emmiline couldn't hear him.

He slumped down in his seat, his anger dissolving. _I've just made this worse, haven't I?_

The Great Hall was crowded and noisy, the students chatting away and catching up with each other. The only person not saying a word, Harry Potter noticed, was Draco Malfoy.

 _That's odd._ He thought to himself. _You'd think that Malfoy would be bragging about his summer to anyone who would listen._

Instead, Malfoy was just sitting there, picking at the small amount of food on his plate disinterestedly, surrounded by people that were ignoring him. He looked almost as if his puppy had died and been eaten.

Emmiline, Harry noticed, was sitting at the table across from his. That was odd too, as Harry had never seen Malfoy and Emmiline apart. She also looked saddened, and when she thought no one was looking, she snuck glances at Malfoy across the room.

 _Maybe they had a fight._ Harry thought.

"What are you thinking about Harry? I didn't even see you concentrate that hard on that Tranfiguration test last year that was worth half your grade!" Ron joked.

"Nothing," Harry said, still staring at Malfoy.

"Whatever," Ron said. "Did Hermionie tell you about this Muggle place she went to called an "amusement park"?" They have these things called "roller coasters," which are apparently carts that go around on a railroad track in the sky really fast! We really  
/don't give Muggles enough credit."

"Mmm," Harry nodded absentmindedly. Fight or not, Harry was going to find out what had happened.

Before Draco knew it, the feast was over and so was his time to stare at Emmiline. She went off to the Ravenclaw dormitory while he went off to the Slytherin.

With a sigh, he mumbled the password and walked into the common room. It was completely empty, seeing as he was the first one there. He plopped himself onto the green sofa in front of the fire, basking in it's warmth.

Knowing that there would soon be many people entering the common room, Draco got up, walking into his dormitory. He sat down on his bed, his face illuminated by the silver moonlight coming through the window next to him.

He pulled up his sleeve, looked at the tattoo-like Dark Mark on his forearm, and thinking bitterly about the pain it had already caused him. If it wasn't for his greedy, power-hungry parents, he wouldn't be in this situation!

Draco heard students start to trickle into the common room, sluggishly walking into their dorm rooms with full stomachs and tired minds, and quickly pulled down his sleeve, pulling the blanket over his shoulders and pretending to be asleep. He wasn't  
/in the mood to talk to anyone.

As he drifted off to sleep, he didn't see Harry Potter slipping out the door, invisible to all.


	3. Chapter 3

Harry Potter ran back to his common room, shocked.

As he neared the portrait of The Fat Lady, he took of hisinvisibility cloak, and mumbled the password. The Fat Lady eyed him suspiciously, but the portrait swung open all the same.

Harry quietly crept through the common room, which was thankfully void of people, and into the boys' sleeping quarters. He was met with a chorus of loud snores (it's a wonder any of them were able to sleep in the first place) as the door creaked shut (they really must oil the thing) and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that everyone was asleep.

Or so he thought.

"Where were you, mate?" Ron whispered not-so-quietly as Harry pulled back the covers on his bed, effectively startling him.

"Just looking at something," Harry said quickly. "I thought I saw a new portrait, but it was just an old one in a new place."

Ron didn't seem to believe him, but said, "okay," and went back to sleep, too tired to question him further.

Harry resumed his attempt to fall asleep, but he knew that sleep was not a gift he would be receiving that night. His mind was simply too active, a whirlwind of thoughts and questions. What had happened between Emmiline and Draco wasn't a couples' quarrel, that's for sure. Did Emmiline know about this? Is she also a death eater?

Harry decided that he'd talk to Emmiline tomorrow, and watch her for any suspicious, death eater-like behavior.

He and Malfoy were also going to have a "talk," Harry thought, wanting to hear the full story from him before he went and told Dumbledore. He hoped that it had all been a misunderstanding, that Malfoy had put on a temporary tattoo of some sort on his arm to scare the other kids or something of that sort, but something told Harry that that wasn't the case.

 _Draco_

Draco awoke late, much to his despair. Looking at the time on his slightly-off watch, he determined that he had completely missed breakfast (good riddance) and was about to miss Potions.

Jumping up immediately, Draco haphazardly ran a comb through his thin bleach blonde hair, (it was always so dull, it pained him to look at it) and simultaneously put on his emerald green robes.

He grabbed his wand and his notebook and rushed out the door, sprinting down the hallway in hopes of making it to class on time. He knew he wasn't going to make it the minute the final late bell rung (he was dead meat).

Draco opened the door to the dungeons, where potions was located, and prayed to God that no one would see or hear him sneak into the classroom. Alas, luck was not on his side.

"Mr. Malfoy," Professor Snape said, in his cold, neutral voice, "would you mind explaining _why exactly_ you are 10 minutes late to my class?"

Everyone turned to look at Draco, who flushed scarlet. "I overslept," Draco mumbled, rushing to find a seat and sit down and break the stares of his peers.

"And why is that?" Professor Snape questioned drumming his nails against his desk, eerily calm.

"I couldn't sleep last night," Draco said, not bothering to specify why. If they knew exactly why he couldn't sleep, he'd be thrown out of Hogwarts, or worse, thrown in Azkaban.

"Very well, Mr. Malfoy. 20 points from Slytherin. Make sure you don't "oversleep" again."

"I won't, Professor," Draco said hurriedly, getting out the ingredients necessary to brew today's potion. It was only then that Draco noticed who he was sitting next to.

Harry Potter.

"Why, exactly, could you not sleep?" Harry asked. "Was there something on your mind?"

"No," Draco said haughtily, trying to mask his fear. "Just, you know, missing the comfort of my bed at home. It must be easy for you to sleep here, considering you "bed" at home is probably a ratty old mattress lying on the floor."

To Draco's pleasure, Harry didn't answer. Good. No more questions.

They set to brewing their potion in silence, occasionally muttering under their breathes about something or another.

Still, Draco couldn't concentrate. On more then one occasion, Harry had to stop Draco from putting way too much of an ingredient into their potion, or stirring the wrong way. The last straw was when Draco nearly dumped the whole tub of ground up unicorn horn into the potion, almost making the whole potion explode.

"What's _wrong_ with you?!" Harry said, grabbing Draco's arm. Draco instinctively flinched, because Harry, knowingly or not, had grabbed his dark mark.

"Nothing," Draco said, "I'm just tired." He snatched his arm away, glaring at Harry, and continued to stir the potion, reprimanding himself for not being more careful and paying attention.

"Yeah right," Harry muttered, clearly not meaning for Draco to hear him.

"Are you suggesting that I'm _lying,_ Potter?" Draco said, in a dangerously low voice.

"Yes," Harry said, pointing an accusing stare at Draco. "In fact, I know your secret. And if you don't meet me in the Astronomy tower at midnight tonight and tell me what your little game is, I will go straight to Headmaster Dumbledore and tell him  
style="font-family: Arial-ItalicMT; font-style: italic; font-size: 16pt;"everything."

 _How the hell does he know?_ Draco thinks, his blood running cold. "Fine. I'll tell you everything."


	4. Chapter 4

Draco made his way down the dimly lit halls, careful to not make any noise. He was shaking slightly, from fear or cold, he couldn't tell. Probably both.

 _Draco, you complete idiot!_ He thought to himself. _Potter's gonna turn you in the second you step foot in the Astronomy Tower, no questions asked._

Still, Draco pressed on, gliding down the halls faster as he heard the clock strike midnight. Nearing the Astronomy Tower, Draco stopped to take a breath, before he slid the doors open, preparing for the worst.

To his surprise, there was no one in the Astronomy Tower, except Harry. Draco visibly sagged with relief, grateful that Harry hadn't decided to turn him in just yet.

"I'm surprised you came," Harry said, stepping out of the shadows and acknowledging Draco.

"Save it, Potter," Draco snapped, crossing his arms. "What do you want?"

"The truth," Harry said simply.

"I didn't want to be a death-eater," Draco began, "but You-know-who told me that if I did as he told, he would save Emmiline. She, unfortunately, didn't get that I did it for her-"

"That's because you didn't," Harry said. "You did it for no one but yourself, out of fear and cowardice."

"That's not true," Draco insisted. "How would you know anyways? You weren't there with me. You didn't make the decision."

"I know because I've met Voldemort." Harry said. Draco visibly flinched at the mention of his name. "He gets into your head, makes promises you know he won't keep, promises that you want to believe anyway, because they would make the decision so much easier. But the truth is, they're  
style="font-family: Arial-ItalicMT; font-style: italic; font-size: 16pt;"lies.Plain and simple."

"What if they're not?" Draco said, desperate to prove to Harry that he was wrong.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me that you honestly believe that Voldemort was telling the truth."

At this, Draco was left speechless. Did he really have faith in Voldemort's claims?

"I can't do that," Draco said.

"Exactly."

Draco threw his hands up. "What is it that you want me to do? I can't exactly ask to have _it_ removed."

"Well Malfoy, that is where my plan comes in," Harry said.

"What exactly does your plan involve?"

"Well, just because you are now a death-eater doesn't mean you have to be loyal to them," Harry said slowly.

Draco paled. "Are you saying that I should be a _spy_?"

"Well-" Harry began.

"No. NO. It would take Voldemort no more than a second to figure out I'm a spy and have me killed," Draco hissed.

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Harry muttered.

"I heard that!"

"Good."

"You can't make me do it! And who are you to give me orders anyway?" Draco said defiantly.

"You're right. I can't make you do it, but let's just say that if you don't..." Harry trailed off, leaving the threat unspoken.

"Fine," Draco said.

"That's what I thought. Meet me back here tomorrow night. We have to work out the details," Harry said. He walked out of the room, sliding the door closed.

And once again, Draco was alone with his thoughts.

Draco woke up the next morning on a cold marble floor with an aching back. As he came to, he realized that he had fallen asleep in the Astronomy Tower after Harry had left. He slowly picked himself off the floor, wincing as he did so, and looked for the big clock in one of the corners of the room. It was almost 10:00! Draco scrambled to get out the door, and broke into a sprint as soon as he was out.

The common room was empty (as Draco had anticipated, classes weren't nearly over yet) and Draco fell down on top of of the emerald green chairs, exhausted.

 _No use going to class now._ Draco thought, looking at the ancient grandfather clock in the corner, filling the nearly empty room with a dull ticking noise. He'd just go to his next class when the bell rang.

Having nothing else to do, Draco got up, and half-heartedly attempted to fix the complete and utter disaster that was his mop of bleach-blond hair. Draco missed how it was before, dirty blond and slightly wavy. But his father found that he disliked the color (it wasn't the same as his, and Lucius didn't enjoy that) and ordered Draco to bleach it.  
style="font-family: Arial-ItalicMT; font-style: italic; font-size: 16pt;"Like the disgusting lapdog I was,Draco thought bitterly, _I did it._

 _God, it'll look like I just blew off class to go and get hot and heavy with someone_. Draco realized, but he was too distracted to care. To hell with his reputation. Not that he was going to have one, after the  
style="font-family: Arial-ItalicMT; font-style: italic; font-size: 16pt;"absolutely brilliant(note the sarcasm) idea Potter had.

Suddenly, the bell rang. It's shrill, high-pitched ringing reverberated around Draco's head, snapping him out of his dazed and tired state. He lazily picked up his books for his next class, (which happens to be Transfiguration) and reluctantly walked out the door, knowing that not a single thing would get done that day.


	5. Chapter 5

As Draco walked down the hallway towards his next class, (or more accurately, stumbled), he ran headfirst into Emmiline. _Could my luck get any better?_  
Draco thought sarcastically. In an awkward silence, they both rushed to pick up their scattered things and part ways.

Just as Emmiline was about to leave, her textbooks piled haphazardly on top of her binders, Draco spoke. "Goddammit Emmiline! I don't want it to be like this anymore! Can't things just go back to the way they were?"

Emmiline turned to look at him with a mix of sadness and anger, her eyes holding disappointment and heartbreak. Things have changed Draco. So have you." With that, she turned and left, a single tear falling down her cheek.

And there Draco was, standing alone in the hallway, tired, sad, and alone yet again.

"Mr. Malfoy! What a pleasant surprise. I was wondering when you were planning to show up. Care to elaborate?" Professor McGonagall called as Draco failed to sneak inconspicuously into his seat. The whole class turned to look, glad for the break from class work.

"I- uh-" Draco stammered, flushing red as all his classmates continued to stare. _This is the second time!_ He scolded himself.  
 _What's wrong with you?!_

"Very well. Since you are obviously incapable of showing up to class at the correct time, you will have detention with me tonight," Professor McGonagall said, focusing her attention once more on the class.

Draco couldn't hear what she said next. _I have detention. Tonight. How am I supposed to meet up with Potter?_

"Mr. Malfoy! Care to give us a demonstration of this spell?" Professor McGonagall said, looking at Draco expectantly.

Draco looked to the blackboard, but the spell sadly wasn't written there. He let out a colorful string of words under his breath. Great. With any luck, Professor McGonagall would give him another _week_  
of detention for this.

"What's that?" Professor McGonagall said, raising her thin eyebrows. Whoops. She had heard him.

"Nothing!" Draco said hurriedly.

Professor McGonagall clearly didn't believe him, but she still carried on. "Well then, Mr. Malfoy, any time now would be a great time to answer the question."

Draco gulped, knowing there was no way of getting out of this one. _Damn you Potter_. "Uhhhh..." Draco thought desperately to remember  
 _anything_ Professor McGonagall had said in the last 10 minutes, to no avail.

"Expelliarmus?" He guessed, knowing he was a goner. He heard the whole class surpress a laugh.

Draco could of swore he'd seen steam coming out of Professor McGonagall's ears. "You think you're funny, Mr. Malfoy? Well, I suppose another two weeks of detention will teach you otherwise."

Draco almost fell out of his seat with shock. _Two weeks?_ Even for Professor McGonagall, two weeks was a lot. "Professor, you can't be serious," Draco said nervously.

"Yes Mr. Malfoy, I'm afraid I am. Now get back to your work before I make it three."

 _Great. Just great._ Draco thought bitterly. Could his day get any worse?

"Class dismissed!" Professor McGonagall said, waving her students out of the classroom. "I want you to read pages 56 through 87 and write a 5 paragraph essay on the history of Transfiguration. This assignment is due this time next week."

"Yay, homework on the second day of classes!" One of the students Draco couldn't quite remember the name of said sarcastically.

"Tell me about it," Draco said, rolling his eyes.

The boy turned to eye him, giving him an impressed look. "You had some guts, saying that to McGonagall back in there."

"Look at where that got me," Draco said. "Two weeks of detention. That's just fantastic."

"Yeah. You're Malfoy, right? I'm Lucas." Lucas extended his arm, and Draco hesitantly shook it.

"Friends call me Draco," Draco said, astonished that he'd used the word "friend" in a sentence. "What's your next class?"

Lucas picked up his crumpled and torn schedule, leafing through the pages. (He wasn't exactly a tidy person, that's for sure) "I have potions," he announced, after searching for a good amount of time.

"Same here," Draco said, gesturing in the direction of the dungeon. "We'd best get going, don't need another week of detention for being late _again."_

"Yeah," Lucas laughed, beginning to make his way to Potions and motioning for Draco to follow, "especially not on the first day of classes."

Anyone entering the Potions classroom would immediately think twice about entering when they got a good look at it. The poorly lit room was cold and damp, and the whole thing smelt faintly of moss. Not an extremely inviting classroom, to say the least.

Draco and Lucas walked into the classroom scanning the room for empty seats. Almost everyone was already there, waiting for class to start. Surprisingly, the last two empty seats were in the back, Draco's favorite.

"Let's sit over there," Draco pointed, tossing his textbooks carelessly onto his chosen table.

"Fine by me," Lucas shrugged, grunting as he finally dropped his mound of disorganized papers onto the table as well.

"Professor Snape is nowhere to be seen, and Class was supposed to start 8 minutes ago," Draco said, looking at the clock. The classroom was starting to get noisy, and Draco did not fancy having another headache.

"Good riddance!" Lucas laughed. "With any luck, he'll keep this up for the whole year."

"Uh... Lucas..." Draco whispered, motioning to the figure standing right behind Lucas, who happened to be none other than Professor Snape.

Lucas immediately stopped talking, gulping and sinking in his seat.

"With any luck," Snape started, his sallow face showing no emotion, "you'll be able to finish all the work you'll have to do in detention tonight by the time you're 30." Then, he walked to the front of the class.

"Well, that makes two of us," Draco joked.

Lucas grinned. "At least mines only for one day."

"With the amount of work Snape's gonna have you do, it'll feel like s lifetime," Draco said.

"Class, I am extremely disappointed in you," Snape said in a scolding tone. "I leave you alone for no more ten 10 minutes, and the entire classroom goes ballistic. Honestly, you all act like children."

That was, of course, the most appropriate of times for Lucas to let out an enormous belch, causing to whole class to erupt in laughter, Draco included.

"How about we make you time with me an extended stay, Mr. Finley?" Snape said, rolling his eyes at the classes childish antics. "Well, I suppose since we have succeeded in getting absolutely no work done whatsoever, all of you will have extra homework tonight. I want a paper on how to brew  
 _Felix Felicis_ on my desk by next week. Do you understand me?" Snaps said.

"Yes Professor Snape," the whole class said collectively, eagerly awaiting the sound of the bell signifying the end of class.

When the bell finally did ring, Draco bolted out his seat, far faster than everyone else. Finally!

 _With the amount of homework I have, plus that detention with Professor McGonagall, how am I supposed to find time to meet up with Potter?_ Draco though as he walked back to the Slytherin common room, his hands weighed down by an enormous pile of textbooks and papers.  
 _Well, I guess I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get to it._ Draco thought, sitting down with a sigh and starting on his homework.

When the time for Draco's detention finally came around, he still hadn't finished his homework. With a frustrated sigh, Draco threw his textbooks onto his bed and got up, stretching his unused muscles. He had completely forgotten to tell Potter about his detentions, and was on his way to do so now.

Draco made his way to the dining hall, looking for Harry. He finally spotted him, at a table in the middle of the room, talking and laughing with his friends with a gigantic mountain of food piled in front of him. Typical.  
 _Well, I guess I'll just have to tell him later._ Draco thought, looking around for an empty chair.

 _Just my luck._ Draco thought, finally finding the only empty seat, that just so happened to be located right across from Emmiline.

Draco hesitated, knowing that he needed to eat, but not wanting to sit with her. At long last, Draco's hunger won, and he strode over to the table, sitting down uneasily.

Surprisingly, Emmiline paid him no mind for all of dinner, and Draco even found himself relaxing and having a good time.

But nevertheless, all good things come to an end, and alas, so did dinner. Draco got up quietly, leaving before anyone could notice him. He waited patiently by the door, hoping that Harry would leave quickly so he could talk to him and make it to detention on time.

At long last, Harry appeared, and before he could leave, Draco yanked him by the sleeve of his robe and pulled him into an empty classroom.

"What do you want?" Harry said impatiently. "If it's not that important, can we talk tonight? I have somewhere to be."

"Of course you do," Draco sneered, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, I can't be there tonight. Or any night for the next two weeks. I got detention from Professor McGonagall."

Harry laughed. "Honestly Malfoy, why am I not surprised?" He said. "I suppose we'll have to find another meeting time for the time being. I'll keep you posted. And by the way, I talked to Emmiline today, explained what was going on. She understands, but she's still mad at you. You're gonna have to work pretty hard to win her back."

At this, Draco sagged with relief, and nearly hugged Harry, before coming to his senses and stepping back. "Thanks. Now before McGonagall decides that two weeks isn't enough, I'd better get going."

With that, Draco turned and left, heading down the now-empty halls towards his doom.


End file.
